Christian Kist (Neth) bt Geert de Vos (Belg) HEADER

Quiet man Christian wins the Battle of the Benelux

Dutch roadworker Christian Kist won the battle of Benelux, steamrolling Belgian Geert de Vos 4-2 to reach the quarter finals in his first championship.

It took the fast-throwing confident newcomer to world darts just 54 minutes to win through to the last eight and further reduce his betting odds. He started the week as a 66/1 outsider and saw his odds reduced to 12/1 after toppling fellow countryman and sixth seed Jan Dekker in his opener.

And he produced a sky-high standard, finishing the match with a 32.17 per dart average, firing out two 12 and four 13 dart checkouts as he battled back from 2-1 down.

A man of few words he said after the match: “I am very happy and my girlfriend Kirsten is very happy. That game was harder than my first match.”

He took the opening set against the throw unchallenged, including two 13 darters but the Belg raced back to take the next two, which went the distance.

The Dutchman replied by taking the fourth and fifth legs including 12 and 13 darters, including a 92 checkout.

With the momentum behind him, Kist had a clear road in the match-winning sixth set, which included a brace of 180s and 14 and 13 dart checkouts.